This is not the first time Kevin's genius design put me in awe. All Zanden 2000p users out there, please be prepared. Goods will be shipped out to eagerly awaiting fans tomorrow.
In the picture, you can see the top crate contain the Ohio for the Zanden 2000p power supply and 2nd box contains the Ohio for the 2000p main unit. The two big box below contains Marvel bro's amp stands for the Baldur. They are huge. One audiophile could not wait and drove to get the Ohio at 11:00pm and get two boxes for their beloved Zanden sources.
This is a vibration control product at the instrument level that has taken into every single parameters of the components sitting on top with details down to the cheap plastic feet. Kevin of SRA has a file contains all such information for all manufacturers that goes back as far as 17 years ago. That's why the Ohio class has to be custom made and the waiting time is long. This is not something off-the-shelf and massively produced. Later on, when you change component, SRA will reshape the Ohio for you to accommodate the new size and properties of your new components. Flexibility is granted right at the beginning as well. This is an investment.
Kevin recommends the Ohio XL plus square to be used with AMPLIFIER to yield the best result but crazy AE fellows are ordering Ohio XL plus square for everything, even the power supply of Zanden 5000 dac and 2000p power supply etc.
I got it. Wow, I can now listen to layer and layers of information that was not there before. There is a new found sense of ease and relaxation. The bass is much cleaner than before. The pitch is quick and clean on the tails. On choir recording, I now can feel the recording is made inside the cathedral. There is no emphasis on any frequency range. It is uncolored. It does not has the warmth of wood but it is neither cool. Hard to explain. The ease attached on the melody makes me enjoy music much more. This is really an instrument grade vibration control compared with my previous HRS platforum and taoc wooden shelf.
I only tried one underneath the main unit. I will enjoy it a few more days before I use the one under the power supply.
You have just reminded me on the choir recorded in the cathedral ("Songs of the Wheat Field"). On CD playback using Zanden, the spactial cue and the reverbration sound as a result of the cathedral hall is unprecedented. I used HRS, TAOC before. I believe HRS might work well on turntable but appears a bit overdamped on my then CD source (Burmester 969), TAOC, likewise, has similar characteristics of being a bit overdamped leading to rolling off of the harmonic details shorter than it should be originally.
Share more when you have put the SRA underneath the power supply. I assume the result should be dramatic. What rack are you using?
I couldn't say a word when I put the merticously made Ohio under the Zanden drive. The sense of ease as Julian mentions is what I treasure the most. I read many many reviews about SRA around the world. The results are consistent. The sense of ease comes from reduction of vibration from "all" frequencies. This is important to me as I have tried using many vibration control platforms before. I always feel like partial solution to a full scale problem.
When I had the Avalon, I prefer wooden supports to everything. At a later stage, my friend who once played in the HK Philharmonic told me my setup was not right. He commented too much woody sound sacrifices leading edge and bass resolution. The sound he experiences on stage is much more faster and clearer than the sound that I was cooking at that time. To a real musician, transparency does not quite equal to pin-point imaging. Transparency means the flow of musical communication amongst instrumentalists. At that time, the mid-range was misted by the resonance frequencies of the wood that I might subjectively prefer at that time probably because of the ceramic mid range. Leading edges of the wind/brass section were always downplayed, whereas the midrange of string section was stuffed, and decaying tails of the cello/double bass were absent but a bunch of packaged energy in the far right hand corner of the soundstage. In the absence of these fundamental music properties, I was badly discouraged though I respect my friend's comment tremendously.
Then I gave up and changed to B&W, I was using black diamond racing carbon support at that time. I still could not get the slightest endorsement from my friend. Now, when I am back to the high efficiency camp, all shortcomings are magnified, which permits me to understand the problems step by step. I changed cables, sold my own solid state amps, and become a tube/high efficiency chap.
A lot of hard work get me closer to what I want. I am happy but I wasn't expecting improvement of this scale brought by the Ohio. Delivery of bass notes is pitch pefect. The bloat in lower mid bass is gone for deeper bass notes. The sense of depth also improves markedly in my system. My musician friend who lives nextdoor was here last night. He could now listen to much more ambience cues from the concert hall and much more harmonic information from different musical instrument performing on stage.
Thank you Edward for your multi-year long guidance on building my system. Thank you Jlam who introduces such great product.
When the Ohio is underneath the Zanden 2000p, the soundstage projects on all direction. I am totally englufed by a newly constructed soundstage full of ambience, spatial cues and harmonic details.
This is really state of the art vibration control instrument. I cannot stop listening for 3 consecutive hours. Ever since the arrival of the Da Vinci Grand Reference arm mounted on the Raven AC, I basically halted listening to CD until the arrival of the Ohio XL plus square vibration control platform. Bravo!
SRA Ohio XL 2 specifically made for Baldur Special Edition reminds me a song from a Taiwanese singer: "A special love for a special you". Trust a few Chinese oldies know which song i am talking about.
Wow...can there be a more expensive amp stand, certainly, can there be a better rack than this one? PT/Jlam...is there????
Comments
In the picture, you can see the top crate contain the Ohio for the Zanden 2000p power supply and 2nd box contains the Ohio for the 2000p main unit. The two big box below contains Marvel bro's amp stands for the Baldur. They are huge. One audiophile could not wait and drove to get the Ohio at 11:00pm and get two boxes for their beloved Zanden sources.
This is a vibration control product at the instrument level that has taken into every single parameters of the components sitting on top with details down to the cheap plastic feet. Kevin of SRA has a file contains all such information for all manufacturers that goes back as far as 17 years ago. That's why the Ohio class has to be custom made and the waiting time is long. This is not something off-the-shelf and massively produced. Later on, when you change component, SRA will reshape the Ohio for you to accommodate the new size and properties of your new components. Flexibility is granted right at the beginning as well. This is an investment.
Kevin recommends the Ohio XL plus square to be used with AMPLIFIER to yield the best result but crazy AE fellows are ordering Ohio XL plus square for everything, even the power supply of Zanden 5000 dac and 2000p power supply etc.
I got it. Wow, I can now listen to layer and layers of information that was not there before. There is a new found sense of ease and relaxation. The bass is much cleaner than before. The pitch is quick and clean on the tails. On choir recording, I now can feel the recording is made inside the cathedral. There is no emphasis on any frequency range. It is uncolored. It does not has the warmth of wood but it is neither cool. Hard to explain. The ease attached on the melody makes me enjoy music much more. This is really an instrument grade vibration control compared with my previous HRS platforum and taoc wooden shelf.
I only tried one underneath the main unit. I will enjoy it a few more days before I use the one under the power supply.
Ju
You have just reminded me on the choir recorded in the cathedral ("Songs of the Wheat Field"). On CD playback using Zanden, the spactial cue and the reverbration sound as a result of the cathedral hall is unprecedented. I used HRS, TAOC before. I believe HRS might work well on turntable but appears a bit overdamped on my then CD source (Burmester 969), TAOC, likewise, has similar characteristics of being a bit overdamped leading to rolling off of the harmonic details shorter than it should be originally.
Share more when you have put the SRA underneath the power supply. I assume the result should be dramatic. What rack are you using?
Marvel
When I had the Avalon, I prefer wooden supports to everything. At a later stage, my friend who once played in the HK Philharmonic told me my setup was not right. He commented too much woody sound sacrifices leading edge and bass resolution. The sound he experiences on stage is much more faster and clearer than the sound that I was cooking at that time. To a real musician, transparency does not quite equal to pin-point imaging. Transparency means the flow of musical communication amongst instrumentalists. At that time, the mid-range was misted by the resonance frequencies of the wood that I might subjectively prefer at that time probably because of the ceramic mid range. Leading edges of the wind/brass section were always downplayed, whereas the midrange of string section was stuffed, and decaying tails of the cello/double bass were absent but a bunch of packaged energy in the far right hand corner of the soundstage. In the absence of these fundamental music properties, I was badly discouraged though I respect my friend's comment tremendously.
Then I gave up and changed to B&W, I was using black diamond racing carbon support at that time. I still could not get the slightest endorsement from my friend. Now, when I am back to the high efficiency camp, all shortcomings are magnified, which permits me to understand the problems step by step. I changed cables, sold my own solid state amps, and become a tube/high efficiency chap.
A lot of hard work get me closer to what I want. I am happy but I wasn't expecting improvement of this scale brought by the Ohio. Delivery of bass notes is pitch pefect. The bloat in lower mid bass is gone for deeper bass notes. The sense of depth also improves markedly in my system. My musician friend who lives nextdoor was here last night. He could now listen to much more ambience cues from the concert hall and much more harmonic information from different musical instrument performing on stage.
Thank you Edward for your multi-year long guidance on building my system. Thank you Jlam who introduces such great product.
Kingston
Wow...can there be a more expensive amp stand, certainly, can there be a better rack than this one? PT/Jlam...is there????
Marvel